The zoom button, or at least that is what it used to be for, has always been a bit odd, but mostly predictable. Clicking that little green button would make a window in OS X zoom to fit the contents being displayed. Now, in Yosemite, the zoom button acts as the fullscreen button. Ever since my move to OS X back in the days of Tiger I quickly developed a disdain for fullscreen apps. One mild annoyance I have noticed in my recent upgrade to Yosemite is that little green button is now the button for making an app fullscreen. However, there are a few workarounds to restore the zoom functionallity to that little green button.
Any seasoned Mac user knows the wonders that the Option key holds. When exploring menus, try holding the Option key and see what other menu options may appear.
- The first, and most easily discovered workaround for me is to hold the Option key while clicking that little green button, that will restore the zoom functionality.
- The second workaround I discovered was to double-click the title bar of a window. To make this work, one must open up the Dock System Preferences and be sure to un-check “Double-click a window’s title bar to minimize.
- And the thrid, and perhaps my favorite workaround, is to set up a trigger in BetterTouchTool. Now I didn’t figure this out on my own, so I shall give credit where credit is due, and link to the instructions I found on Apple Stack Exchange.